Filesystems are used to organise data into computer file entities, namely directories and files, that can be stored, manipulated and retrieved using a computer's operating system. For example, various versions of FAT (File Allocation Table) and NTFS (New Technology File System) are used with Microsoft Windows operating systems, and various versions of ext (extended file system) are used with Linux operating systems, among many others. Filesystems relate the data of named files to locations in storage. The storage can comprise physical storage devices such as, for example, hard disk drives, solid-state storage, tape storage, and CD-ROMs, and/or virtualised storage layered above such physical storage devices.
Network filesystem protocols enable users on client computers to access file entities of a remote filesystem over a network. Such access can be transparent to a user, as though the user is accessing file entities of a filesystem local to the client computer. For example, implementations of various versions of the NFS (Network File System) protocol provide an NFS service to export names and parameters of remote directories that it is desired to share, enabling a local filesystem of a client running, for example, on a Unix or Unix-like operating system to mount the exported directories. In a further example, implementations of various versions of the SMB/CIFS (Server Message Block/Common Internet File System) protocols, such as a Samba file service, enable a local filesystem of the client running on a Windows operating system to map a local drive to a network drive of a remote filesystem.